A lawmaker investigating a recent recall of Johnson & Johnson's children's medicine has accused the company of stymieing the inquiry, the New York Times reported.

U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said J&J had used delaying tactics in its dealings with the committee and in some instances had provided misinformation, the paper reported for its Friday editions.

J&J denied the accusations, the paper said.

The conduct may compel the committee to take more aggressive action as it looks into drug quality and safety issues raised by the recall, Towns said, according to the report.

We are not getting the kind of information and cooperation that he would like, the paper quoted Towns as saying in an interview.

J&J spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs told the paper that the company had been very cooperative with the committee. J&J has provided the committee with about 20,000 pages of documents, made its executives available for interviews and answered queries in a timely manner, she said, according to the report.

Reached for comment, Jacobs said she was quoted accurately in the story. A spokeswoman for the committee did not immediately return a call for comment placed before regular business hours.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Medicine